Fighting Temptation

 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.  (I Corinthians 10:13) 

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-13) 

One of my goals this winter was to read several books by Dallas Willard. He stresses repeatedly that one of the ways that the modern Church has failed is in teaching people how to live a godly life and equipping them to do so. It is as if when you are born again, they hand you a membership pin and a Bible and say, “You’re all set!”  Occasionally, pastors will preach on a matter of spiritual maturity, but if parents spent as little time raising and caring for their children as churches spend developing spiritual maturity in their members, the parents would be charged with neglect. I wish I thought I was exaggerating, but today’s first passage is a good example.

If you ask people what the way of escape from temptation is, you’re likely to be told that “It’s Jesus,” or, “It’s the Bible,” or, “It’s prayer.” This is one way in which the rules set up by the monastics in the Roman Catholic Church probably had it right. I’m sure I would find it inconvenient to spend specific times of the day in prayer, or to be required to fast, or to undergo confession to someone on a regular basis, and I’m not suggesting that churches establish “The Rule” for their congregation as the founders of monasteries did for their cloisters. But I suspect we would benefit if we had more direction with regard to how one lives as a Christian.

This is what I am finding in the books by Dallas Willard if I would only apply them and not just read them.